January 12, 2012

For seven years, first on my own server then on Blogger, Lancaster Unity (formerly Lancaster UAF) has been fighting fascism and racism as embodied in such groups as the BNP and the EDL. From originally being set up to accompany local anti-fascist activity, the blog spread itself wider until it became a national resource with, over the years, many excellent contributors and countless thousands of readers.

When LU began, there was a gap in the market for a continually updated blog that has now been closed by a number of anti-fascist organisations elsewhere, some of which are listed below. Also, the advent and popularity of Twitter and Facebook (both easily accessible and updatable via smartphones) has made the anti-fascist presence on the internet much larger and more effective than it has ever been before. While the bad guys use technology to humiliate and embarrass themselves, anti-fascists have used it to inform and organise.

Because of ongoing health problems which are drastically eating into the time I can devote to Lancaster Unity, it has gradually become a copy and paste blog with very few original articles. This is no bad thing because it's always useful to have one type of news that appeals to a certain group located in a single place. This role though, is rapidly being superceded by Twitter, which does the same job very well. Better, in fact, than we ever could. Thus, it's time for Lancaster Unity to stand down, though the blog as it is will remain here as an archive and a resource for anti-fascists.

It's not too bad a time to be going. The EDL, although it has political ambitions, seems incapable of keeping itself from fragmenting in all directions, while the BNP at the moment appears to be shrinking by the day while Nick Griffin spends half his time in the European Parliament participating in the gravy train that he once professed to despise, and the other half boring us all to death with his tedious stories about smoked salmon.

Even better, it's a real pleasure to be leaving in the week that two of the killers of Stephen Lawrence have finally been convicted. We look forward to the day that the rest of them get banged up.

Big thanks to Denise and John, both of whom helped make LU what it was, and very many thanks to our contributors: Andy Minion, Iliacus, Roddy, Larry and all the rest of them. Special mentions go to NewsHound and Zaahid, both excellent news-spotters who should get their own sites together and keep up the good work. Naturally, a site such as this is useless without readers, and we've had a loyal and feisty readership over the years whose contributions have easily been as interesting as ours. Thank you to all of you (except the nazis, who are just complete morons).

We've been helped since the blog began by a number of organisations. Principal among these are Searchlight (who gave us essential help to get started in the first place, and who we worked closely with on numerous occasions), Hope not hate and Unite Against Fascism. Special thanks to those three and to all the other people who have helped out in one way or another.

It's been (at times) great fun, interesting and bloody hard work (especially on the all-night election specials). Thank you to everyone for all your input.

103 comments:

Dave (from Blackpool)
said...

Fuck, what a shock. Still your probably right that Twitter and Facebook are more used now than blogs because theyre accessed through phones. A shame to say goodbye to Lancaster Unity but you've all done a hell of a good job over the past few years and its been a laugh. Good luck with the health problems and also with the new blog. I'll take a look at it.

It's true. Twitter and more especially Facebook have taken a lot of the power from blogs. Nevertheless it's nice to know you're still going to be doing something in anti-fascism. Lancaster Unity has had a good run and it's probably best to get out while it's still up there with the best.

It's a pity Denise left though. I thought she was a great loss when she went.

Fucking shame. Lancaster Unity has been here since I was 15. Now I'm 21 and I'm going to have to get a job or something. Just kidding. :D Brilliant job, LU. Good luck for everything you plan to do next!

You have all done a great job through the years. Thank you. Understand the need to move on and Ketlan you have done us all proud. Give yourself time to recover from your health problems and I will watch out for the new blog.

Jesus, have you been going for seven years already? You've done a good job with such a huge commitment, particularly if you're sick too. Fuck it. Goodbye LU but hopefully hello to a few other sites as spin-offs.

P.S. Take no notice of those nazi twats. If they had a site that was worth a millionth of LU (or Searchlight) they wouldn't know what had hit them.

I just spoke to a couple of friends I still have in the BNP (I left a couple of years ago) and they were both shocked that LU was going. It was the only place that told them the truth about their party.

I'm sure neo-Nazis everywhere will be pleased you are stopping editing this excellent anti-fascist resource, but your fine work is continuing everywhere so the fascist scumbags will quite rightly have no rest!

I can only echo what Ketlan has said and it's been great fun along the way and I've got some special memories and moments that I think that everybody involved in this blog can be proud of.Many thanks to Ketlan, Denise, Andy, Irish Tony, Kev Scott loves the Jam and the many many others who have helped or made me laugh along the way.

I've set my own website up which I launched last night which can be found here http://www.anti-fascists-online.com It's up and running at the moment but not finished as today is my birthday and I intend to demolish a rather nice single malt.Cheers,John P

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Another one bites the dust. What a shame. I certainly wont be losing any sleep over the fact that another fascist site has gone to dust. And nationalism gets stronger by the day. Survival of the fittest, and it looks like that isn't you !!

What a crying shame. This site was one of them best for anti-racism enlightenment. However, perfectly understand the reasons why it's coming to a close. Good health to you guys, may your futures be bright, healthy, and happy. It was a pleasure sending in the news stories and reading the articles... part of my staple net daily diet.

D'you know, I almost choked to death then. Nationalism is fucked. If you haven't realised that yet, you're a bigger cunt than I realised, Sean. Get rid of Griffin - if you don't, you're permanently fucked.

Awwww.......... I checked this site several times a day.... this was / is the defacto anti-fash webpage...

Ketlan, I wish you well and good health mate, I hope things pick up for you.

to all the regular posters (many of you 'anons'), please continue to publish all the stuff somewhere... me? I'll probably pop along to Johns site (http://www.anti-fascists-online.com/) and post there... maybe you will too.... lets keep up the momentum..... till the last nazi sinks into the pile of shite they came from.

I am so sad that this blog has reached the end, may the spirit live on for all to be inspired by.

There's some really nasty nutzi troll comments on here from those stupid Aryan keyboard warriors (or should that be "worriers", as you really showed up EDL and BNP nazis for what they are, a complete and utter waste of space....

crikey, that's a shock and a shame. LU has been my daily reading for goodness knows how long and Damn fine it is too. As a load of people have already said, it's done a great a great job of exposing the far right as the bunch of liars, cowards, criminals and idiots that they so surely are. I hope your health improves and maybe that LU isn't gone for good. As the edl would say, "no surrender to common sense", but i prefer " no parasan"

Thanks for being my first port of call for anti-fascist news for the past few years, you've always had a good balance of serious/funny and reported the important stuff whilst not overloading with every little bit of possible news.

Thanks for all your good work challenging those who sow the seeds of hatred and division in our communities.Thanks for all your good work in defeating the organisations rotton to the core with policies designed to create an apartheit Britain where some citizens have more rights than others.The fight goes on.

you better get that left eye sorted.ha! ha! if you miss the boat that's it.paper and rubber out and erased for forever.half up half down.good to get rid of of rubbish!and that's not from me if you get my drift!!!cheerio cheerio cheerio!ha! ha!